Information is very important in the society. In the present, many different approaches, legislations, and strategies are implemented to ensure the privacy of each individual in different fields and aspect. For the information technology, certain measures are applied to ensure the safety and privacy of the informations and activities of each person. Inside the physical homes of each individual, safety and security measures are also installed to maintain the personal territory of the person or people living in it.
In other fields, privacy measures are also being applied and these strategies are widely supported by the legal structure of each society and are constantly being developed along with the technological advancement of the public. Indeed, the society is willing to put in much efforts and resources to implement and further develop the privacy concern of each individual in the society. In the present however, contemporary issues and technological advancement have brought up a new concern in the privacy aspect of the society namely the security in the genetic information of each individual.
As the scientific and medical community of the present society have developed and are now able to implement advance measures in the genetic field including biological manipulations, genetic cloning, and others. With the advance technology in the medical and scientific fields, concern community can now easily extract, duplicate, culture, and store the intricate genetic characteristics and informations regarding the personal genetic composition of each individual.
On the ideal perspective, knowing the genetic information of each individual can significantly aid the medical treatment of each individual particularly on genetics-related disease and ailments and the duplication of certain parts and organs lost during amputation procedures and disease conditions. However, on the negative side and as related to the advancement in the medical field, informations regarding the genetic characteristic of each individual can also be used and manipulated for adverse scenarios such as unauthorized cloning and human experimentation.
As such, storing genetic information for medical purposes is advantageous yet, each of these informations must also be protected and maintained to be private to avoid unauthorized exploitation of the said knowledge. With the acknowledgement of both the positive and negative nature of the genetic information storage, the main argument primarily in this issue is how the genetic information will be used for the medical purpose. On the positive view, extracting genetic information is part of the treatment procedure and the health testing for newly born infants.
Most institutions afterwards proceed to storing of the said information for future references and needs such as for employment concern, other medical procedure, health insurance purposes, and others. However, with the storage procedure comes now the complicated issue wherein the said information is feared to be leaked and used inappropriately. Under this concern, most societies and legal structure ratified privacy laws and amendments regarding the use and storage of genetic informations.
Laws regarding this issue differ basically for each society based on the perspective towards the matter however, all are similar in terms of protecting the individual rights of each person towards privacy for personal information including genetic information. Privacy is mainly a concern of each individual and the society in general As each person is unique from each other and the general public, it is only appropriate that this personal differences must be maintain and protected from unauthorized use and/or exploitation.
For purpose where the information is needed, the authority is rightfully to be in the concern of the involved person wherein he or she must be notified or asked for clearance. This right or social law is basically embedded in the liberty rule of the society giving personal rights for each individual for his or her privacy and protection of individuality, which includes significant genetic informations.
Bibliography
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Genetic Privacy: A Challenge to Medico-Legal Norms. Cambridge University Press. 1st Edition. ISBN-10: 0521660270. Oregon. gov (2001). Genetic Privacy and Research-Information and Documents. Oregon Genetics Program. http://egov. oregon. gov/DHS/ph/genetics/research. shtml. October 31, 2007. Rothstein, Mark A. (1999). Genetic Secrets: Protecting Privacy and Confidentiality in the Genetic Era. Yale University Press. New Ed Edition. ISBN-10: 0300080638.